


Catriana and the Boy

by Starsfury



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, something which came from a moment of reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 05:43:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17319077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starsfury/pseuds/Starsfury
Summary: A moment in a life which could have been





	Catriana and the Boy

                The porch door opened with a weary creak, as three half-grown puppies tumbled down the stairs.  A moment later, a woman stepped out on the warm wood planks.  She closed the doors behind her, as she moved to sit on the top of the steps.  The night was warm, and the air soothing.  And for a change, there was a modicum of silence in her vicinity.

                She slanted a look over her shoulder at the house, a small grin creeping over her lips.  If she timed it right, it would take about 23 minutes for anyone to come looking for her.  It was going to be toss up if it was an offspring or her spouse who found her first.

                A boisterous bundle of fur came gamboling up, dragging a stick longer then the puppy itself was.  She pulled the stick from her mouth, and tousled her ears.  Leaning back, she sent the stick sailing over the yard.  All three puppies took off in chase, which resulted in them fighting over possession.

                A slam from the driveway brought her attention around, as she squinted into the twilight.  Sighing, she pulled the glasses off the top of her head, and smiled as she recognized her daughter’s silhouette.

                “Hey, Cat.”

                Her eldest paused, and gave her mother a slight grin.  “Hey, Mum.”  She paused at the base of the stairs and gazed at her mother.  Even though her mother was nearing fifty, she still looked younger than the mothers of Catriana’s friends.  Silver glinted sporadically, but Fiora had been fighting with that since she was 21.  It was a tradition in her family; you either go silver or bald by 25. 

                Fiora looked at her daughter’s stance, an inwardly sighed.  Something had the sixteen-year-old tweaked.  And if she didn’t figure it out and fix it, then the over-protective daddy in the study was going to go nuclear.

                “So how was studying?”  She waved her hand at the step, inviting Cat to join her.  Cat tossed her bag up the steps, and threw herself down gracefully next to her mother.  Side by side, you could see Fiora’s bone-structure in Cat.  She had the high-cheekbones and the rigid jaw from her mother.  But she had her father’s dark hair.  Paired with her blue-green eyes, the girl had been breaking hearts for as long as she could remember.  Her mother often teased her that she learned how to flirt in the womb.

                But unbeknownst to most of the boys who liked to chase after Cat, she had a hell of a mind.  A wicked sharp wit and an even sharper intellect.  She was more than capable of dealing with unwanted attention.  But every now and then, a girl needs to confide in her mother.  And Fiora was getting the feeling that was one of those times.

                She waited patiently, and after a few minutes, Cat began to fidget.  Cat sighed and starting picking at her nails.  “It went okay… for the most part.”

                Fiora cracked a knuckle quietly and hid a smirk.   “For the most part?  Can you define that better for me?”

                “Like how?”  Cat’s sarcastic side crept into her voice at her mother’s question.

                “Like… was it good?  Or am I going to be trying to stop your father from disarticulating someone?”  Fiora raised an eyebrow expectantly at her daughter.

                Cat’s jaw dropped at her mother’s question.  “MUM!”  She spluttered for a moment… “I told Dad I was going to be studying with Sophie, not Brett.”  She glanced at the door quickly.  “I can’t tell Dad that I was hanging out with a boy.  He’d go ballistic.”

                A triumphant smirk ghosted across Fiora’s face.  “Well then I guess you best tell me everything that happened, so I don’t ‘accidently’ mention to your father that something’s wrong, and it involves a boy.”

                “… Mum…”  Catriana glared at her mother.  “Are you seriously blackmailing me?”

                “Aye-yep.”

                “Isn’t that against the rules?”

                “Nope.”

                Cat grumbled and started cracking the knuckles on her left hand.  “I swear… you and Dad don’t play by the rules.  I’m the teenager; I’m supposed to be the manipulative one.”

                An evil chuckle exploded from her mother, causing Cat to snort in amusement.  “Sweetheart.  I love you dearly, and compared to kids your age, you are quite devious.  But you have many, many, MANY years to go before you even come close to your father or me.”  Fiora slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug.  “So quit giving me the bullshit, and tell me what happened.”

                Cat laid her head on her mother’s shoulder and snuggled in.  She could honestly say that the two people who scared her the most were the ones she loved the most.  Her parents were formidable on their own, but combined they were terrifying.  Meaning that no-one, ever, was going to be able to hurt her.  And that made things simultaneously easier, and more difficult.

                “Well, Brett and I have the American History project.  So we went to the Library, and did an ass-ton of research. “She smirked at her mother’s quirked eyebrow at her profanity.  She was generally allowed to swear, as long as it wasn’t directed at her parents, or used around her younger siblings. “So, we got several references, and I had the bibliography all sketched out.  Brett wanted to brainstorm on how to actually construct the project.

                “Except we’re not allowed to really discuss at all inside, cause… well… Brett is a loudmouth.  So he suggested we head to the tables set up outside the entrance.  I wanted to get the project done, so I agreed.  Once we were there and settled, he asked me to stand up.”  Catriana paused.

                Fiora cocked her head to the side, eyebrow raising.  “Why?”

                “Well, I didn’t know it at the time, but he wanted to see how tall I was.”

                Fiora snorted, “Is Brett the kid in your class who’s about 5 foot 6?”

                “Yea.  So, I stood, and he leaned in… well up, and tried to kiss me.”  Cat blinked, a perplexed look on her face.  “He hit my chin.”

                Fiora dissolved into a gale of giggles, imaging the shorter boy trying to kiss her daughter.  Cat had taken after her father, and was damn close to 5 foot 10 at this point.  She glanced at the disgruntled look on her daughter’s face and tried to contain the laughter.  “Sorry, go on.”

                “Well I wasn’t impressed, so I tried to pull away.  He grabbed my arm, and tried to pull me down… So I kicked him in the balls.”

                Grinning, Fiora hugged her close for a moment.  “You get that from me, my love.  Always go for the jewels.”

                Catriana grinned back, and wrapped an arm around her mother’s waist.  “I just reacted.”

                Fiora rubbed her chin along her head, watching the puppies as they raced across the yard after a squirrel.  After a few moments of companionable quiet, Cat pulled away.

                “Mum,… How do you know when a guy’s the Right One?”

                Feeling her eyebrow disappear into her hairline, Fiora backed off to get a look at Cat.  “What do you mean?”

                “Well…” Cat gave her mother a sheepish grin.  “I watch my friends, and they date just about anyone.  And then I see you and Daddy.  And you two are… well when you’re not completely grossing me out, you two are so adorable you make my teeth hurt.  Even when you’re picking on each other.  I don’t want to bother dating, I’d rather just get the Right One, the first time out… ya know?”

                Fiora grinned, letting her daughter’s words filter through her brain.  “It doesn’t quite work that way, sweetie.”

                “Well, I want it to.”

                “I was married to someone, before your father.”

                Catriana’s jaw dropped.  “What?!”

                With a snort, Fiora nodded.  “Mhm.  I actually met him after I met your dad.  And through a serious of extremely fucked up timings, I ended up in a relationship with him, and married him.”

                “Did Daddy kill him?”

                A bark of laughter escaped.  “No!  No… but he wasn’t pleased when it all happened.  It all happened way too fast, and your father was actually off on walkabout at the time.  And I stayed married for 3 years.”

                “And this was after you met Daddy?”

                “Yes.”

                “Mum, don’t take this the wrong way… but were you retarded?!  How could you choose anyone over Daddy?”

                Shooting her daughter a quelling look, Fiora ran a hand through her auburn locks.  “Your father and I met in 2006.  And we became friends… awesome friends.  But there were factors that made things difficult.”

                “Like what?”

                “Well, I was 24 at the time.”

                “And?”

                “Your father was 15… or so.”  A slight blush stained Fiora’s cheekbones as she thought back to that long ago day.  Twenty-four years had passed, but some things were burned indelibly into her brain.  She watched as the realization hit her daughter.

                “Mum!”  The scandalized expression caused Fiora to start to laugh. 

                “Relax.  Nothing happened. “Fiora stood up and walked down the steps.  “Anyway, we stayed friends, talked about everything, flirted outrageously, and there are a lot of details there I refuse to share on account of you have to be able to look at your father later…”

                Cat stuck her tongue out and wrinkled her nose… “Please don’t share that much… ugh.”

                “But I got married in 2009, January to be precise.  And I had every intention to make it work.  He was a Marine.”

                “Like Uncle Gabriel?”  Cat interjected.   

                “Well, not quite.  Unlike your uncle… he didn’t do justice to the uniform… He didn’t appreciate the values of the Corps.”  Fiora snorted, “In some ways, I was a better Marine.”

                She walked a few steps away, shoving her hands into her back pockets.  “Things were good, for a while.  Then things went wrong… little things here and there.  And then everything went to hell.  And around about the time, I got a pretty bad concussion at work, and was on some pretty nifty painkillers.”

                She rubbed the back of her skull in reflex.  “Around about that time, I opened my big mouth, and told your father how I felt about him.”

                “Mum…”

                Fiora tossed a cheeky grin at her daughter.  “I had been hiding the fact that I had been in love with him for … gods… about 5 years at that point.  In other words, for as long as I had known him.”

                Catriana inhaled, imaging her parents back then.  Both her mum and dad were extremely well versed at sarcasm, and beneath the surface they were both unbelievably deep, and emotional.  Only their closest friends new just how romantic her parents could get.  Cat could totally envision her parents hiding their feelings from each other.

                “But I still had to figure out things with the person I was married to.  Luckily… well now I call it luckily, he decided to be a bastard… and that made my decisions that much easier.  I got divorced… and then not much changed.”

                “What?!  But you told Daddy…”

                “Yea, and your father and I continued as we had always done… only this time with new intentions.  It wasn’t like a fairy tale, all wrapped up with a pretty bow.”  At this point, Fiora was gazing at the house.  “With your dad and me, it was …”

                “Visceral.”  Her father’s voice startled Catriana, causing her to spin around on her step.  Colin came out of the house, closing the door, his gaze fixed firmly on his wife.  “Your mother and I never did anything normally.  Not friendship, not fighting.  We always… “

                “Ignored the normal methods of things.”  Fiora finished his sentence.  “It was like a force of nature, and we were both perverse enough to just let it have its way with us.” 

                Catriana watched as her parents shared a lascivious grin.  Colin walked to the steps and held a hand out to Fiora.  She grinned wickedly and walked up to him, and tilted her chin up.  With an answering smile, Colin leaned down to kiss her, both of them getting lost in the sensation, ignoring for a moment, their sixteen-year-old daughter.

                For her part, Cat marveled at the love the emanated from her parents.  She turned her gaze to the puppies in the yard to give her parents some privacy, and to save her own sanity.  After a moment or two, she heard them part, and she turned back to her parents.

                Colin was standing with his back leaning against the railing, with Fiora’s head resting on his chest, both of their hands intertwined.   “So who’s this boy I need to damage?”

                Cat shot her mother an incredulous look. “You told him!”

                A snort answered her, Colin’s amusement at her comment readily apparent.  “Not so much, kid.  It’s simple.  You’re on the porch, talking to your mum.  It’s one of the few places in this house where no one can eavesdrop.  Which means you had to be talking about a boy.”

                Cat considered his words, and sighed in exasperation.  He was right.  “How long were you there?”

                “Long enough to hear that you take after your mother…  I doubt the little fuckwit will try to kiss you again.  At least not if you kicked him correctly.”

                Insulted, Cat frowned at her dad.  “I know how to kick a guy in the balls, Dad.  You can ask Lex about that.”

                Remembering the last time Alexander had pissed off his older sister, Colin grinned.  “Uh-huh.  Well your mum made cookies, and I put yours in the hiding place.”  Colin and his daughter had the same sweet-tooth, and ever since Cat had been a toddler, the two of them had their own hiding place where they shared sweets.  “Go grab your cookies, and put your crap away.  It’s movie night.”

                Grinning with a certain amount of evil glee, Cat grabbed her backpack, and ran into the house.  Colin leaned forward slightly to run his lips along Fiora’s neck.  “Do I need to be worried?”

                Trying to control a shiver, Fiora shook her head.  “No, Sophie saw it happen and called Lex earlier.  He’s the one who told me. “  She brought a hand up to stroke his cheek.  “According to your son, he’s scheduled a ‘conversation’ with Brett tomorrow during football practice.”

                An evil chuckle from Colin caused the hairs on her neck to stand up.  “Good.”  Their fifteen-year-old son was a powerful player, and was well known to be capable of some brutal tackles.  “I’ll make sure to tell Lex to make it hurt.”

                Fiora pulled away, giving him a grin.  “Let’s get inside before we get chewed on by the bugs.”  She paused and glanced back at the puppies.  “Clotho! Lachesis! Atropos!  Come on girls.”  Hearing their names, all three husky puppies came scrambling up on the porch, bouncing around their legs. 

                Colin looked at her, and gave her a searing look.  “Have I told you how hot it is that you named the puppies after the Moirai?”

                Fiora gave him a cheeky smile, “Name one thing that I’ve done, that you don’t think as hot…”  She paused for a sec, “Other than marrying someone else.”

                Colin shoved his hand in her back pocket, steering her into the house.  “Let’s not talk about that.”


End file.
